1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a safety tether utilized with a conventional ceiling fan to prevent injury from a fan blade should a break in its fan blade bracket occur. More particularly, the present invention relates to a ceiling fan safety tether that serves to retain a fan blade in close proximity to the fan motor and thereby prevent the fan blade from becoming a flying projectile upon the unlikely event of a break in the fan blade bracket.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many types of ceiling fans have been employed having various safety designs associated with them. The conventional ceiling fan consists of a motor suspended from a ceiling having a plurality of radially extending fan blades connected to the rotating motor to thereby produce the circulation of air in an enclosure. The various prior art ceiling fan designs do not provide for the protection of possible loose fan blades or in some cases, broken fan blades from becoming a flying projectile and thereby endangering people located nearby. At the present time in the industry, even though there has been few occurrences, there have been no designs of ceiling fans to alleviate this potential hazard.
In a related field of fan designs, other than ceiling fans in particular, there has been an attempt to prevent any contact with rotating fan blades through the use of a simple cage-like structure being attached to the fan assembly. Such cage-like structures have been applied generally to smaller portable fans. Some typical examples of the prior art relating to cage-like safety guards for oscillating or portable fans are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,261,544; 4,022,548; 4,657,712; and 4,818,183. These typical cage-like safety guards for portable fans are too cumbersome for use in ceiling fan designs due to the ceiling fans being much larger in size. Thus, these cage-like guards have not been applied to the ceiling fan art.
Therefore, there is still a need in the ceiling fan art for a form of safety means to protect people located in the area of such ceiling fans from possibly becoming injured upon the remote happening of a ceiling fan blade becoming separated from the ceiling fan assembly due to an unlikely break in a fan blade bracket or upon a fan blade possibly working loose over time from a fan blade bracket.
One form of safety guard associated with the ceiling fan art is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,427. This particular prior art ceiling fan guard dealt with the prevention of contact with the fan blade tips as they rotate to circulate air. The safety guard structure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,427 was basically in the form of an annular ring suspended from the motor housing that completely surrounded the circumference of the fan blade path. This annular ring structure does not act to prevent any flying projectiles from being released from the ceiling fan assembly, particularly in the case of a fan blade bracket breaking or a fan blade working loose from a fan blade bracket over time.
Therefore, there are inadequacies in the current ceiling fan art aimed at preventing the potential problems that could arise upon the unlikely event of a fan blade breaking or loosening from the rotating fan housing. In the remote possibillity of a fan blade breaking away from a fan blade bracket or becoming loose therefrom, the fan blade would in effect become a flying projectile and would thereby endanger the people situated nearby.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improvement which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the ceiling fan art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a ceiling fan safety tether for retaining the fan blade upon the unlikely event of the fan blade bracket breaking or the fan blade becoming loose from the fan blade bracket whereby the any possible danger of the fan blade becoming a flying projectile will be eliminated and people in the general area will not be in danger of being injured.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a ceiling fan safety tether which utilizes a minimal number of components and is therefore economical to manufacture.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a ceiling fan safety tether having a design which can be readily utilized in the present ceiling fan designs in the industry.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a ceiling fan safety tether which also provides a damping effect when positioned between the fan blade and fan blade bracket, and between the fan motor housing and the fan blade bracket. The damping effect acts to decrease vibrations and noise being created in the fan motor housing and transmitted to the fan blades.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a ceiling fan safety tether for use in a ceiling fan assembly, the ceiling fan assembly having a fan motor housing, a fan blade bracket coupled to the fan motor housing, and a fan blade coupled to the fan blade bracket, wherein the ceiling fan safety tether comprises in combination: a body portion having a first end and a second end, the body portion being of a flexible material and elongated in shape; a first anchoring means for anchoring the first end of the body portion to the fan motor housing, the first anchoring means being coupled to the first end of the body portion; and a second anchoring means for anchoring the second end of the body portion to the fan blade, the second anchoring means being coupled to the second end of the body portion, whereby the ceiling fan safety tether acts so as to retain the fan blade in close proximity to the fan motor housing, in the remote happening of the fan blade bracket breaking, thereby preventing the fan blade from becoming a flying projectile.
The foregoing has outlined some of the pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or by modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a more comprehensive understanding of the invention may be obtained by referring to the summary of the invention, and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.